Re: Hello

[Joakim Ziegler <joakim helixcode com>]

On Thu, Nov 16, 2000 at 08:04:13PM -0500, linuxcoder wrote:

>  Many people have discussed that we need reqs before we jump to far ahead. I
> agree. I also believe we should scrap as much of the scripting and DB as
> possible in favor of sgml and "compiling the sgml to html". That way we can
> do all translations at that moment and apply a stylesheet to the page to
> render the html the way we want (we could also use different stylesheets to
> make a low browser site (lynx) and a high browser site(mozilla 18)).

>     We need to be looking for light weight and low browser reqs. I don't
> think we should use css or dhtml. Not everyone has the latest and greatest
> browser. These technologies are too specific, too quirky and not wide spread
> enough to use. We also need to think light weight in terms of file size
> (under 10kb per page). I am sure most developing countries do not have
> dsl(they probably can barely get 14.400 modem running) so we need to
> accommodate that. For the high power users it is nice once and a while to
> see a fast loading page ;-)

I agree. This should go into the requirements thread, under design and page
requirements. I'm not sure I agree that it's a bad idea to use CSS, though,
in my experience it can be used to greatly enhance the look of a site in a
compatible way, and most importantly, stylesheets can be externalized, so
they're extremely bandwidth-optimal.

I think it's completely possible to make sites that work in practically every
browser, and still look great in the newest browsers, and it's probably also
possible to do this while remaining relatively lightweight. It's going to be
interesting to see how we can tackle this challenge.


> my last note. WE NEED TO BRING AN INFORMATION ARCHITECH ONBOARD. This is one
> of the most overlooked aspects of website design. If the website is
> organized logically it can make a profound difference on the user's stay at
> the site. We need some type of committee or person to organize the
> information logically to help users as much as possible.

Information architecture and structure is actually my main area, and what I'm
hoping to be able to dedicate a large portion of my time to once we've
actually kicked off the project and people are at work in different groups. I
welcome help in this area, of course.

-- 
Joakim Ziegler - Helix Code web monkey - joakim helixcode com - Radagast IRC
      FIX sysop - free software coder - FIDEL & Conglomerate developer
            http://www.avmaria.com/ - http://www.helixcode.com/